(KCBS) – KCBS Entertainment Editor Jan Wahl reviews Disney’s new blockbuster, “Oz The Great and Powerful”. This prequel of the 1939 classic “The Wizard of Oz” tells the story of how a small town magician named Oscar becomes the titular Oz.

This is a big budget, big special effects movie. It starts magically, with the 3-D glasses taking us on a journey with a cut rate magician who travels with a small circus. As played by James Franco, he seduces women and then flees – a little too much reality.

Inspired by L. Frank Baum’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz mixed with a prequel of the classic movie, the story takes place 25 years before Dorothy and her friends. When Franco ends up in Oz, he meets three witches. All of them are girls after him – one even turns green when he shares affection.

What happened to the strong girls and women of Wicked, the film classic or the Baum novels?

Franco plays it like acting school. Robert Downey Jr. was originally signed, and who knew Michelle Williams as Glinda could be so dull? The good news: gorgeous visuals and the first hour 3-D is worth it. Disney didn’t have the right to the iconic imagery; they could have filled it in with more heart. It is too long, but thankfully most kids will not be scared. There’s no place like home… a possible place for this beautifully visual but somewhat disappointing epic.